DALLAS (WBAP/KLIF)- If you plan to travel internationally this holiday season there’s a new tighter COVID-19 testing requirement that went into effect on Monday.
The Centers for Disease Control said you will need to get a COVID-19 viral test, regardless of vaccination status or citizenship, no more than 1 day before you travel by air into the United States.
Prior to the change, you only had to test negative three days before your flight.
The new rule applies to all passengers ages 2 and older.
You must show your negative result to the airline before you board your flight.
If you recently recovered from COVID-19, you may instead travel with documentation of recovery from COVID-19 (i.e., your positive COVID-19 viral test result on a sample taken no more than 90 days before the flight’s departure from a foreign country and a letter from a licensed healthcare provider or a public health official stating that you were cleared to travel).
The updatesd testing protocol is part of the Biden Administration’s plan to control the COVID-19 pandemic and the new emergence of the Omicron variant during the winter season.
The move comes just weeks after the U.S. largely reopened its borders to fully vaccinated foreign travelers on Nov. 8 and instituted a two-tiered testing system that allowed fully vaccinated travelers more time to seek a pre-arrival test, while requiring a test within a day of boarding for the unvaccinated.
Much remains unknown about the new variant, which has been identified in more than 20 countries but not yet in the U.S., including whether it is more contagious, whether it makes people more seriously ill, and whether it can thwart the vaccine. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease expert, said more would be known about the omicron strain in two to four weeks as scientists grow and test lab samples of the virus.
(Copyright 2021 WBAP/KLIF 24/7 News. This Report Contains Material From The Associated Press.)